Tag Archives: Sondra Radvanovsky

Talking to Sarah Mole about singing and Toronto Summer Music

Posted on October 25, 2025 by barczablog

It’s now mid October, and the worst of our July heat is a memory, but I remember Sarah Mole dashing about doing a million things at the Toronto Summer Music Festival in her role as Communications & Public Relations Manager. … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology | Tagged J’Nai Bridges, John and Mary Sidgwick, Jonathan Crow, Orpheus Choir, Russell Thomas, Samuel Barber, Sarah Mole, Sidgwick Scholar, Sondra Radvanovsky, Thomas Burton, Toronto Summer Music, William Fedkenheuer | Leave a comment

COC Medea explores truth

Posted on May 6, 2024 by barczablog

Yesterday I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s Sunday matinee of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. The main character may tell a lot of lies but that didn’t stop the audience from cheering her on in one of the darkest operas imaginable, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera | Tagged Alfred Walker, Canadian Opera Company, Chiara Isotton, Lorenzo Passerini, Luigi Cherubini, Matthew Polenzani, Medea, Sir David McVicar, Sondra Radvanovsky, Zoie Reams | 5 Comments

News, positive and negative

Posted on April 28, 2022 by barczablog

It’s been a hard week so far. I’m heart-broken with the news in my inbox, that Elisa Citterio is leaving Tafelmusik. I can’t help but wonder about the subtexts for this change. Perhaps it’s just the pandemic and its deadly … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Food, Health and Nutrition, Music and musicology, Opera, Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged Amanda Hale, Carmen, Elisa Citterio, Flying Dutchman, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Kye Marshall, Macbeth, Marriage of Figaro, Pomegranate, Quinn Kelsey, Richard Wagner, Sondra Radvanovsky, Tosca | 2 Comments

Perryn Leech comes to the COC

Posted on April 28, 2021 by barczablog

I am disoriented. The end of April? Time for taxes, to plant & nurture the garden. And to renew my subscription to the Canadian Opera Company before the end of the month. But it’s so weird. Normally their new season … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Alexander Neef, Canadian Opera Company, Harry Bicket, Perryn Leech, Sondra Radvanovsky, Tamara Wilson | Leave a comment

Framing the Pollyanna proposition

Posted on January 9, 2020 by barczablog

January is named for that two-headed god who is able to look ahead and back. As I ponder the wreckage of 2019 I wonder if Janus was too busy looking down at his phone and not watching where he was … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged 887, Against the Grain Theatre, Alaina Viau, Amplified Opera, Aria Umezawa, Book of my shames, crystal pite, Dawn Jani Birley, Elisa Citterio, Gustavo Gimeno, Isaiah Bell, Joel Ivany, Johannes Debus, Jonathan Crow, Jonathan Young, Kiviuq Returns, Kopernikus, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Masaaki Suzuki, Musique 3 Femmes, Revisor, Robert Lepage, Rusalka, Sondra Radvanovsky, Tamara Wilson, Teiya Kasahara, The St Matthew Passion, Toronto City Opera, Wajdi Mouawad | 1 Comment

Somewhere over the… moon?

Posted on October 11, 2019 by barczablog

Both works currently playing at the Canadian Opera Company feature a famous aria known by people who might otherwise not know the whole work. In Turandot it’s “nessun dorma”, a piece associated with Luciano Pavarotti, and maybe a little bit … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Popular music & culture | Tagged Dvorak, Judy Garland, Rusalka, Sondra Radvanovsky, Song to the Moon, Wizard of Oz | 2 Comments

Keri Alkema: A Journey of Transformation

Posted on May 22, 2018 by barczablog

Today’s noon-hour recital at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre aka the foyer of the Four Seasons Centre was unlike any we’ve seen before. Readers of this blog may recall that I’ve expressed my admiration for Keri Alkema in my reviews of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Desdemona, Don Giovanni, Donizetti, Donna Elvira, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Keri Alkema, madama butterfly, mezzo-soprano, Otello, Rachel Andrist, Sondra Radvanovsky, Un ballo in maschera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1 Comment

Anna Bolena: saving the best for last

Posted on April 29, 2018 by barczablog

Sondra Radvanovsky is the story. There is no better singing in an opera in Toronto than what you’ll hear if you go see Anna Bolena with the Canadian Opera Company, and she’s not the only great voice. I can talk … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Allyson McHardy, Anna Bolena, Benoit Dugardyn, Bruce Sledge, Canadian Opera Company, Christian Van Horn, Corrado Rovaris, Gaetano Donizetti, Ingeborg Bernerth, Keri Alkema, Sandra Horst, Sondra Radvanovsky | 5 Comments

Radvanovsky: Humble Servant

Posted on August 1, 2014 by barczablog

Tonight at Koerner Hall, Sondra Radvanovsky offered a self-portrait in her recital as part of Toronto Summer Music Festival. It’s not just a huge coup for TSM & Artistic Director Douglas McNabney, the highest profile artist to appear there this … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Anthony Manoli, Douglas McNabney, Sondra Radvanovsky, Toronto Summer Music | 4 Comments

Questions of identity

Posted on May 11, 2014 by barczablog

Do you know who you are? Today’s performance of the Canadian Opera company production of Roberto Devereux at the Four Seasons Centre seemed like an investigation of identity. For one thing, there’s the opera’s plot, which concerns Elizabeth I and … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Canadian Opera Company, Donizetti, Ernesto Ramirez, Roberto Devereux, Sondra Radvanovsky, Stephen Lawless | Leave a comment